“We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams, “
Arthur O’Shaughnessy (1871)
With the much anticipated (and soon to be unveiled) manifesto, I am quite sure that many of us have been thinking what our ideal cocktail of policies may be. There will almost certainly be pledges regarding taxation, benefits, foreign policy and the EU. All important and necessary ideas to be shaped and sorted into palatable bite sized chunks. But spare a thought for those of us poor, lost souls who crave not so much well thought out policy pieces, but dashing ideas that challenge the mind and make our hearts swell with pride for a nation we may feel is lost.
Conviction politics might seem a little out-dated (why? why? why?) and consensus politics the new vogue, but what issues really win hearts? I support UKIP not because I think they will manage the minutia of government in radically different ways, but because I feel that UKIP is a party that has fire in its belly and the courage to carry through with conviction.
With this in mind, I would like to present my Desert Island Top 5 wish list for passions that will shape the upcoming manifesto:
National sovereignty
The idea that a country and its people should control their own destiny resonates greatly with many people (just look at UKIP’s stunning success in the EU elections). By what right does another country, organization or agency have the power to rule over us in a supposed democracy?
Social mobility through education
Education is the key to a life well lived. The common exercise of levelling to the lowest bar of quality not only denies British youth the skills they need to succeed financially in life, but also the skills they need to enjoy that life fully. Lack of wealth should never be a measure of the education one is entitled to.
Controlled borders
How can any government plan, implement and deliver successful services (schools, education, housing) if they don’t have the faintest idea of a) how many people are already here or b) how many people are arriving this year? To even propose a balanced budget is an exercise in deceit when you have no idea what the population will be by the end of the financial year.
Imagine organizing a dinner party, the food the chairs, the drinks. You may plan for a specific number, but then the guests arrive and there are twice as many as anticipated. The result? Nowhere to sit, not enough to eat and a big group of disappointed guests.
Balanced books
We trust the government with everything that is dear to us. We have expectations that the management and the administration of our future is in good, honest, capable hands. I am not an expert in accounting, but profits and loss? Debits and credits? Surely a set of balanced books (perhaps even a quarterly report) is not too much to ask.
Rule of law
For me this is the very essence of what I imagine a perfect society to be. All people are equal under the law. Speaks for itself really.
So that’s my wish list, I hope that some of you will comment below with yours…
Photo by R~P~M 
My concern is that UKIP’s manifesto in September will be too economically right-wing. Partly this is tactical – we do need to be a party that reaches out to folks in the North who are unhappy with Labour but will turn their noses up at anything that their spin doctors can successfully portray as ‘Thatcherite’.
But more importantly, we don’t want to hurt people in genuine need in a desire to balance the books. We may have a bad benefits system, but people do depend on it, and we have to be careful in reforming benefits. The coalition has somehow managed to greatly increase our national debt while doing things that do damage people’s chances – trebling tuition fees, for example, even though that will save the taxpayer very little money because so many won’t pay it back. And then there’s the whole ill-conceived ‘bedroom tax’ fiasco. This is the kind of thing UKIP needs to distance itself from.
Specific policy ideas? How about a real push for manufacturing – specific, lower corporation tax rates for manufacturers, and a pledge to appoint a minister of Cabinet rank whose sole job is to increase our manufacturing output faster than services grow. That is far more substantial than the govts vague pledge to ‘rebalance the economy’.
Also, we really must reduce Fuel Duty. It brought in about £25bn last year, so a 10% cut (6p) would cost about 2.5bn…
A change to our judiciary is a MUST. Life must mean life while and when a crime is committed by two criminals that are similar, those sentences should be the same. Our judges have too much freedom, some are too lenient while others are too strict – they should all be singing from the same hymn sheet, so to speak.
Get rid of Police Commissioners – they are just another fancy pay packet for someone who might not even have worked in the Police Force. Less top management and more bobbies on the beat. In other words, less chiefs and more Indians.
Increase our Defence spending, we are in for a long hard fight with the terrorist groups, namely Al Quaeda and ISIS. 🙁
There are many more, but I will await with bated breath for the UKIP Manifesto in September 2014.
Slash public spending. We need to wean the electorate off this notion that spending = services.
Seven million (or five million, depending on how you calculate) public-sector employees living off the taxpayer and only two million of those in front-line jobs. The rest are administrators and managers. We can have perfectly adequate public services without bleeding the taxpayer dry to support non-jobs.
Also, reduce the maximum possible benefits claim to no higher than the minimum wage. It is inherently immoral that someone can live off the work of others to a higher standard than they do. Benefits are supposed to be a safety net, not a mechanism for enjoying a standard of living that is beyond the reach of many working people.
I agree we need to curb public spending, but the only way we can do this is to ensure that local government produces it’s ‘books’ every year, not just a bland statement we get with our council tax demand but an actual account of what they are spending our money on and why!
As for benefits, the MAJORITY of claimants only do so because of unforeseen circumstances in their life, unemployment, severe illness or disability. Don’t believe the government hype, even it’s own DWP figures show that less than 1% of claimants are thought to be fraudulent, so let’s at least give claimants the entitlements that MOST of them have paid for. Additionally, most of the people who claim benefits ARE IN WORK and it is a national scandal that people on the ‘minimum wage’ still need Housing Benefit, Tax credits etc., just to survive. That needs sorting first before we demonise claimants as the Conservatives have done. I sincerely hope that UKIP also stands for compassion for those in genuine need, and if they are not genuinely in need then the system is at fault and needs changing. It’s like the migrants to the UK, I don’t blame the Bulgarians or Romanians coming here, they are trying to better themselves and look after their families. It is the system that is wrong and needs changing.
I understand where you are coming from Gary, but I believe that the system we currently have encourages its own expansion.
The best example is the single mothers who live off the system. A girl can get pregnant and be provided with a home and living expenses at the taxpayer’s expense. The more children she has, the more she gets.
On the other hand, If a girl works hard, acts responsibly and waits until she can afford it to have children then she not only has to delay having a family (or have fewer children then she would like) but she has to pay tax to support those who have chosen to live off her labour.
The problem with the safety net we currently have is that it allows people to choose it as an alternative to work. I’m not suggesting that everyone on benefits does this – but when you have a system that pays some people the equivalent of £70,000 a year, you have to admit that it needs to be fixed.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/387308/Working-is-not-worth-it-Benefits-mum-rakes-in-70-000-in-welfare
I agree with you with regards to single mothers – they are almost being ‘rewarded’ for being irresponsible, but I wouldn’t want to go back to when they were sent off to homes for errant mothers, but of course there has to be safeguards (rape etc). Also at that stage they have often not paid anything into the system, so I would like the National Insurance contributions to be just that, like your house insurance – if you haven’t paid any premiums, you don’t get any cover. Likewise insurance companies often have moratoriums on claims, I.e. 2 years of payments before you can make a claim, that would be fair. I agree that the system that allows someone to choose a lifestyle at the taxpayers expense has to change.
Another issue that needs addressing is the care of the elderly. My parents were from the east end of London prior to WWII, and lived in relative poverty with few opportunities. However, they worked hard, my dad having 3 jobs at one time, and they bought their own home. Now that has to be sold to pay for their care. However, someone from a similar background with the same opportunities who chose not to work hard, and lived in council accommodation all their lives will have their care paid for without question. That just doesn’t seem fair to me, my parents are being ‘penalised’ for working hard all their lives whereas the other is ‘rewarded’ for not bothering.